Creating content people think is worth sharing, and want to
share in order to connect with others is key to Buzzfeed's success,
says Jonah Peretti, founder of the popular news site speaking at Wired 2013 in
London.

Peretti launched Buzzfeed
in 2006 and by August this year the site was receiving 85 million
unique monthly visitors. "Everyday we need to make things that
people think is worth passing on to their friends," he says.

Buzzfeed has moved beyond just attracting what Peretti calls the
"bored-at-work audience", which has always been key to the site's
success, but the "bored-in-line audience", who are viewing content
on mobile.

He believes the web is undergoing a realignment and that news
has replaced search as the way most people want to connect with
information. Key to this is reaching people through social
engagement -- 75 percent of Buzzfeed's visitors come to the site
through social networks -- and rolled into this is the link to
mobile optimisation.

If you build a web product and it doesn't show up on mobile,
you're going to lose around half the people who could have
potentially seen it, says Peretti, adding, "when we see traffic
coming from mobile, it is disproportionately social."

Buzzfeed is known for offering lists that appeal very much to a
social audience for their "LOLs", but it also offers a long-form
section, has foreign correspondents and, Peretti is proud,
currently building up an investigative journalism team.

Still, he says with a smile, "things like basset hounds running
are very important for the social web".

In real life, he explains, if you go home for the weekend, the
first thing everyone does is gather around to pat the dog, because
the emotions people share when they pat the dog make them feel
closer as a family. The same is true with content you share on the
web -- you laugh and share with a friend, thereby sharing an
emotion with them.

Sharing goes beyond reinforcing connections though and verges
into a way of affirming our own sense of identity, says Peretti.
"You will share that post with people and they won't just laugh and
share the post, they'll understand you."

That's why although bikini shots or nude celebrity pictures are
often popular on the web, they fail to go viral. People might go on
the web to look at nude leaked pictures of Rihanna, says Peretti,
but they are far more likely to share information about a
humanitarian appeal, because of how they want others to see them.
"You want to share things that you're proud to share and reflect
your identity."

Similarly, this is why localised content that speaks to people's
sense of their own identity is so important for Buzzfeed -- in the
UK this means articles about middle class problems, or things you
know if you're only from the north.

Buzzfeed didn't even have a presence in the UK until around a
year ago, but the site's expansion into the British market is one
of the things most exciting Peretti right now. Buzzfeed in the UK
has around 5 million monthly uniques and is the fastest growing
market for the site.

The only limit to the site's success in this country is that
there is a limited audience of only 60 million of us, says Peretti.
"What I want is more Britons… we really need a bigger market here.
Go forth and multiply."